In commercial bakeries, breads, rolls, buns and other products are produced during the performance of a number of different processes steps which are performed on a continual basis. Typically, the dough from which these products are baked is placed in multiple pans that travel to the different processing locations by conveyors. To facilitate the movement of these pans, multiple pans are banded together so that they travel as a single unit to the different processing stations. The pans forming each set of pans are often referred to as strap pan since they are connected together by straps. In a typical bread baking process, a strap pan is first conveyed to a make-up station in which the raw dough is loaded into the individual pans. The strap pan then travels to a proofing area in which the dough is allowed to rise. Once the dough has risen, the strap pan is transported by conveyor into a oven in which the dough is baked so as to turn into bread. Once the baked bread exits the conveyor, it is removed from the individual pans, allowed to cool and packaged for shipment. The strap pan is then returned to the make-up station to be loaded with new dough.
An integral part of this bread baking process is the complete emptying of the individual pans after the bread or other products have been removed. This cleaning is necessary because crumbs or other debris from the fresh baked product often remain in the pan after the product is removed. If these debris are left in the pan, they are baked into the next product the pan is used to hold. At a minimum, this results in the next product having an aesthetically displeasing appearance and/or a taste that reflects the baked-in presence of these debris.
A more serious result can occur if the next product the pan is used to bake is different from the product the pan was last used to bake. In this situation, the debris remaining in the pan may be formed from ingredients that should not be present in the new product the pan is used to bake. The appearance of these debris in the new product can significantly affect the taste of the new product. Also, if the new product is not supposed to have certain ingredients and these ingredients are present in the baked-in debris, a person consuming the newly manufactured product may suffer an allergic reaction owing to the presence of these ingredients. Accordingly, an important part of the manufacturing process in a commercial bakery is the removal of debris from the baking pans after each use.
Numerous methods have been attempted to remove the debris from baking pans. For example, some systems rely on sets of brushes, blowers and/or vacuums to remove post baking debris. These systems work reasonably well for removing small, crumb-sized debris. However, these systems are not always effective for removing large debris or fully baked goods that may be lodged in a pan. This is because the blowers employed in these systems sometimes do not generate enough pressure to dislodge this relatively large material.
There have been other attempts to provide debris removal systems that operate by partially inverting the pans. Once a pan is inverted, it is a relatively simple matter to remove the debris by blowing a reasonable charge of pressured air stream into the pan. The combined forces of the air and gravity dislodge debris of all sizes and causes them to fall out of the pan. However, there are disadvantages associated with current pan-inverting systems. Typically, these systems include some type of rotating wheel, similar to a ferris wheel, on which strapped pans are individually loaded. Once the pans are loaded, the wheel is rotated to incline the pans and then unload them. A disadvantage of these systems is that the pan loading and wheel rotation steps are discrete activities; subsequent movement of the pans ceases until these steps are executed. In a modern commercial bakery, pans can be discharged from an oven at rates of up to 50 pans/minute wherein each pan is typically used to bake 5 loaves of bread. These current pan inverting systems, with their discrete movements, cannot be operated fast enough to invert these high volume numbers of pans. Also, some of these systems subject the pans to free fall movement that is only broken by the pan striking a hard surface. This shock loading can, over time, weaken the pans and significantly reduce their useful lifetimes.